The Enemy Within
by Lilian
Summary: Mizuno Ami is about to find out that threats come from the most unexpected places. Join Ami in a race against time to save those she loves the most from an enemy she thought they'd never have to face: The Silver Crystal itself. **Chapter 4 is up!**
1. Chapter 1

** The Enemy Within **, chapter 1  
  
by Lilian.  
  
lilian413@yahoo.com  
***************  
  
Keep in mind:   
  
'Ginzuishou'--- Silver Crystal.   
  
'Great Sleep'--- After the battle with the Black Moon   
Clan, the Earth was put into deep sleep thanks to Usagi   
and the Crystal. For more fanon info on that matter,   
read Meara's excellent 'Full Circle' chronicles.   
  
****************  
I knew I'd never die in the battlefield. How could I,  
being (only second to Usagi) the Senshi everyone  
protects? New enemy arrives and wham,  
Haruka/Mako/Mina/pick-your-favorite-Senshi stands in  
front of me like a dog looking after its owner. I guess I  
should be flattered, but sometimes it gets downright  
annoying.   
  
Be it because without me the Senshi would lack a  
tactical advisor, or maybe because the enemies can see  
that my attacks cannot do them harm (being of the  
defensive type), I do tend to get blasted around a  
lot. Either way, whenever I begin scanning a new  
enemy, I lose track of everything else around me--- I  
*know* that without my words of advice the Senshi  
would attack endlessly until by chance they found the  
monster's weak spot.   
  
I do not mind being the 'weak link'. Fighting has  
never been in my nature, and I never expected it to  
be. I prefer to be on the sidelines, analyzing,  
learning--- and if push comes to shove, I know I can  
hold my own against most of the enemy lines.   
  
But fighting was never my way of going down. It's  
rather easy to picture Haruka and the rest of the  
girls giving their lives taking the brunt of an  
attack... me, well, I always thought I'd react a  
second too late or perhaps not react at all.  
Casualties of war, if you will.   
  
And so, here I am, about to become a casualty in a war  
we never expected, to a being we never expected to  
fight. A war against one of our own--- the Ginzuishou.  
  
I'm dying. I know it. I can feel my life force leaving  
me, slowly--- with each passing second I get a little  
weaker, my vision a little blurrier... and there's  
nothing I can do to stop it. With every minute that  
passes by, I grow dimmer and dimmer, until I'm just  
not going to wake up.   
  
It's funny, you know. I always thought we would live  
forever (three times dead and three times reborn  
pretty much screws the 'third one's the charm' theory.  
Even my scientist mind cannot grasp the logic of our  
many reincarnations and rebirths...) but it seems my  
definition of 'eternal' is different than the  
Crystal's. Yes, believe it or not, all of this is the  
Silver Crystal's fault. But that doesn't matter now.  
I'm dying, and that's all I can say. I'm not blaming  
anyone for my misfortune, just myself.   
  
Let me rephrase that.   
  
I'm not blaming anyone for this situation--- there is  
no one to blame. No one but fate, perhaps... humanity  
always longs for something to place the guilt on. That  
way, the weight of guilt becomes lighter.  
Spreading the weight on many shoulders makes the  
burden easier to bear.   
  
*I* was the one who caused this illness, through my  
own choice. It was my duty, my life's purpose to  
protect Usagi from any harm, (Although even if I  
hadn't been born a Senshi, I have a nagging feeling in  
the back of my head that tells me I, all of us,  
would've ended up protecting her either way) and that  
is what I did.   
  
How could I let her die like that? Not after what I  
discovered.   
  
I saw my opportunity and I seized it--- not questions  
asked, no doubts.   
  
Okay, so that's not entirely true.   
  
I *did* doubt. Who wouldn't when faced with death? Who  
wouldn't wish in their heart of hearts to avoid death  
at any cost, even after living as long as I have? It's  
a natural thing for mankind to do-- fear death. And I  
do too, as much as I know about the afterlife thanks  
to my Senshi duty. Every living thing fears death,  
simply because it opposes them in every way possible.  
Death ends life, and this is one case where opposites  
do not attract.   
  
Or maybe they do-- humanity has always been drawn to  
death. Painting, sculptures, writing and songs... they  
have all grasped the idea of death and toyed with it,  
trying to explain what cannot be explained.   
  
Maybe there's a scientist in all of us who demands  
answers, who wants to know why death exists... after  
all, couldn't everyone live forever?   
  
But I digress.  
  
I can hear them muffled and hazy around me, as if they  
were talking through a curtain and I was listening to  
a walkman--- I can barely pick up what they're saying,  
and it's getting worse by the minute.   
  
I need to talk to them--- I need to make them  
understand!  
  
I've listened to them scream, cry and beg in denial---  
I can't talk and it hurts to even think. But I need to  
let them know--- they're considering the idea of  
destroying the Crystal! That would mean all of this  
would've been for nothing! The Ginzuishou must go on,  
I don't matter!  
  
"Minna...".   
  
My voice is so low none of them hear it. They don't  
know. They haven't seen what I have, they don't know  
what's coming--- you can't defeat what can't be  
destroyed. You just can't win a battle against the  
Crystal.   
  
Our enemies learned that lesson the hard way. So did  
I. I smile weakly at the irony of it. One of the  
Senshi, defeated and vanquished just like any other  
villain we faced in the past.   
  
What happened? You may be asking yourself. Well, first  
let me introduce myself. I am Princess Ami of Mercury,  
Chosen Keeper of the Wisdom and Strength of the  
Messenger, Soldier of Ice and Water, and Bishoujo  
Senshi Sailor Mercury. Now that you know who I am, let  
me tell you the story of my suffering... perhaps in  
doing so, I will alleviate the pain of those that are  
to come, and spare the grief to whomever may be  
reading this---  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
::Year 3007, Crystal Tokyo, Neo Silver Millennium::   
  
{It can't be. It just can't be}.   
  
Ami's small and trembling hands held a manuscript  
before her wide eyes.   
  
She had read the words several times now, and still,  
they horrified her every time she read them again.   
  
The writing was old, as old as the ancient Silver  
Millennium. Her beautiful face was a mask of terror;  
her eyes were wide in amazement, her features were  
stiff in fear. No other threat had ever made her feel  
such terror.   
  
What she held in her hands was the end of the Neo  
Silver Millennium. What she was staring at was the  
future, what would happen just a few weeks later, when  
the Crystal would unleash its true power. Wasn't there  
a way to stop this? Wasn't there something she could  
do?  
  
Feeling strangely calm, she closed her eyes, and  
breathed deeply.   
  
{Remember, Ami, remember. There's always a way out.  
Always. There's always a chance... there's always  
hope. Everything's not lost... not yet. You can find a  
way to stop this catastrophe. Now, focus. Think of  
this as a new medical discovery.)   
  
She slowly opened her eyes, and they concentrated on  
the paper in front of her. Line by line, she kept  
reading... the fateful prophecy of destruction--- the  
end of Serenity.   
  
She had had her difficulties translating it in the  
first place; no one remembered the dialect it used,  
and the metaphors and it used so many hyperboles that  
she had a hard time separating reality from fiction.   
  
But what she came up with froze her blood and stopped  
her heart.   
  
It talked about a danger coming from within. From  
within a circle of Warriors so tightly held together,  
that no evil could ever defeat them. Only something  
held inside their circle could destroy them, and that  
something was the Silver Crystal.   
  
It rambled for paragraphs to no end about how the  
Jewel the circle held would consume the Light (the  
capital letter was stressed several times). The  
Feasting, it was called. It wasn't very hard to  
realize the Light was Usagi, and the Jewel, the  
Ginzuishou. I mean, how many almighty indestructible  
gems can there be, right?   
  
It spoke about Princesses being crowned, and children  
being born. About darkness falling over a perfect  
Kingdom, and warriors fighting and failing. About a  
Royal family which was born and reborn, and the mark  
of a crescent moon as their symbol.   
  
Her eyes skimmed over lines and lines of sorrow and  
horror, of death and destruction, reading the last few  
lines one more time.   
  
'Darkness is drawn to light. Death is drawn to life.  
The End will come from Within, silent and deadly and  
unstoppable'.   
  
As she finished reading, her hands began trembling  
again.   
  
{No...}  
  
But it was going to happen. The prophecy said nothing  
about dates and specific time periods, but Ami knew---  
for centuries, she had examined the Ginzuishou and she  
knew when it changed. For the past few weeks, it had  
been slowly but steadily losing it's glow.   
  
When told about this, the Senshi had blamed it on the  
times of peace, on lack of use if you will--- she had  
been tempted to believe it too, but her logical mind  
refused to accept facts without proof.   
  
Who knew how long it would be before the Crystal would  
consume Usagi? For almost a century, they had faced no  
enemies, fought no battles--- had they really thought  
the days of War were over?  
  
Ami sighed and rubbed her temples, realizing just how  
silly that whole theory was. In the last battle  
against Chaos, the entity had revealed something that  
they had suspected for a long time: as long as the  
Ginzuishou existed, enemies would come for it. It was  
the natural flow of things, the most basic law of  
Physics--- for every reaction, there's an equal but  
opposite reaction.   
  
With all-too-powerful good, there's bound to be  
all-too-powerful-evil.   
  
The entire Universe worked based on Balance, and the  
time of that balance to tilt into one direction was  
coming near. That didn't mean it helped her deal one  
little bit.   
  
What the manuscripts said was so preposterous she  
still couldn't believe it. The   
Silver Crystal, the glimmering stone that had saved  
their lives countless of times before; the symbol of  
Serenity's power... was it really going to kill its  
own owner? The prophecy said it would drain her life  
away, pretty much in the same way Queen Serenity of  
the Old Millennium had died. But there would be no  
monumental battle, no Apocalypse to be thwarted--- it  
would simply happen, and unleash a sequence of events  
that would end life as they knew it.   
  
The scrolls never mentioned Evil. They simply said it  
was the course of events, the turning of the Great  
Wheel, they called it. Go figure what the Ancients  
meant with such metaphors, but they got their point  
across. One day, the Crystal would wake up and decide  
it had been owned by the same person long enough. And  
that would be the day Usagi would die.   
  
Desperation was starting to get her. And that was when  
her communicator beeped.   
  
She jumped on her chair, startled by its sound. She  
had completely forgotten about it on the last days...  
so worried she had been by her discoveries.   
  
She picked it up and looked at it. She didn't need to  
look at the screen to know who the caller was--- their  
link allowed her to feel what Zoisite was feeling, and  
well, lately she had had to shut him off, the doubt  
and loneliness creeping into her heart too much for  
her to bear, much less unconsciously passing it on to  
her beloved.   
  
The last thing she wanted right now was for one of her  
close friends to find out about this--- she had hardly  
had the time to come to terms with it herself. Maybe,  
if she had enough time she would be able to avert the  
Armageddon hovering dangerously close to home.   
  
That was her job as a Senshi--- and her duty to the  
one person who had not feared her intelligence and had  
simply accepted her for herself, breaking the vicious  
cycle of mockery and awe that had surrounded her life  
back in the late days of the XXth century.   
  
Taking a deep breath and collecting her thoughts as  
best as she could, she pressed the small button to  
open the connection and sent a prayer to whoever was  
listening that she would be able to deceive her  
two-lifetime soul mate.   
  
"Hi, sweetie."  
  
Zoisite's voice had changed over the years--- gone was  
the teenage quality, replaced by wisdom and knowledge  
gained after years upon years of compiling data and  
doing research. But no matter how much they changed  
(she was hardly the shy, mousy girl Usagi had  
befriended back in high school) there was one thing  
that remained the same: the love they had for one  
another.   
  
They had met under stressful circumstances, back in  
the Old Silver Millennium. He had saved her from a  
lecherous Prince and helped her discover herself in  
the process. She had killed him when the Dark Kingdom  
had purged the Moon, only to die a few hours later  
defending her Princess. They had been reborn in  
twentieth century Tokyo, where they had re-met, but  
not before his evil clone had tormented them long and  
hard, playing with their phantom memories and bringing  
sadness upon the Senshi circle.   
  
Those times were long gone, and they were still  
together.   
  
They challenged each other every day, their agile  
minds working at full speed trying to catch up with  
the newest inventions and discoveries--- they both  
loved science to death, and perhaps it was this love  
that helped to keep their own kindled, whereas other  
relationships withered and died under the pressure of  
eternal life.  
  
And now, for the first time since she could remember,  
she was going to lie to him. She *had* to, otherwise  
he might take this burden upon his own shoulders and  
do something stupid like try and keep *her* away from  
it--- that was the one thing Ami found annoying about  
him: the fact that no matter how powerful she got, no  
matter how self-secure she became, Zoisite would  
always see her as a sobbing Princess escaping the  
clutches of a lusty Prince.   
  
He suffered from the Knight in Shinning Armor  
Syndrome. But then again, all the Generals did, with  
Endymion being the textbook case from which it all  
stemmed from.   
  
"Hi, love".   
  
Her heart reached out to him as she noticed the slight  
darkening of his eyes--- signs that she had grown to  
recognize as his Worry Face. And even if Zoisite's  
voice remained nonchalant, Ami could read him better  
than she could herself. She had aroused questions in  
him... his mind was as quick as her own, and she could  
count with her right hand the number of times she had  
actually managed to slip something by Zoisite.   
  
"What are you doing up this late? I've told you not to  
do this. It can't be good   
for your health."   
  
And even if she knew he was on to her, she thanked him  
silently for not pressing the issue. Ami knew that  
Zoisite knew, and Zoisite knew Ami knew he knew--- a  
ghost of a smile danced across Ami's lips as she  
realized that being around Minako had messed with her  
grammar much more than she would let anyone know.   
  
"I know."   
  
{Please, Zoi, let it *go*!}  
  
"You seem a little tired. Have you been sleeping well  
lately?"   
  
No such luck. To ask him to let matters rest  
undisturbed would be like asking Haruka to stop  
worrying over Usagi. Simply impossible. And it didn't  
matter that said girl had grown into one of the most  
powerful (if not *the* most powerful) women on the  
Milky Way. It was simply in their genes...  
  
"No."  
  
This time, the storm gathering behind Zoisite's pupils  
brewed to a climax, and even the most clue-less of  
people wouldn't have had any trouble noticing that he  
was onto Ami. And still, the blue-haired Senshi kept  
her guards up.   
  
"You sure you're all right?"  
  
Ami took a deep breath, trying to calm her racing  
heart and trembling hands. One wrong word out of her  
mouth and Zoisite would teleport to where she was,  
ruining her chances of ever finding out a solution for  
the prophecy that she kept clasped in her fingers.   
  
She just thanked the fact that she had never taught  
Zoisite how to read the ancient dialects... I mean,  
what would've been the use of that? Nobody used them  
anymore. She herself was able to read them only  
because after the Great Sleep their past lives'  
memories had returned, allowing her access to the  
knowledge that had been dead and buried for over a  
thousand years.   
  
Thank God her former self had been as studious as she  
was.   
  
"Yes, Zoi, I'm fine. I'm just excited about some new  
scrolls I found. You know how I can get!"  
  
Sadly, Zoisite knew *exactly* how Ami could get when  
something new landed on her awaiting hands. Obsessed  
pretty much described it, with a tad bit of glee. As  
much as he loved his wife, Zoisite *knew* that she  
threw self-preservation to the wind when it came to  
the pursue of knowledge... Ami rarely got sick (might  
have to do with her affinity with ice. How could she  
ever get a cold when she spent half the time throwing  
around ice-based attacks in nothing but a mini-skirt  
and boots?), but when she did, it was usually because  
of lack of sleep due to continuous researching.   
  
That led to a feeling of failure and impatience for  
not being able to continue her work, which led her to  
midnight escapades from bed to try and get some work  
done, which of course, led to her condition  
worsening---- it was a cycle, up until Zoisite  
threatened to tie her down and keep her away from her  
books for good if she did not stop.   
  
Funny how the doctor within her was always overpowered  
by the scientist.   
  
"Need any help? Things are pretty slow here, and we  
could use some time alone..."  
  
He let the end of his sentence hang, knowing full well  
that Ami would get the meaning of it. His heart melted  
when he saw her blushing slightly--- even after a  
lifetime of being together, the timid Ami surfaced  
sometimes, especially when matters of the bedroom  
where concerned. Besides, he liked making her blush--  
it was a good look on her.   
  
In the back of his mind, a distant memory stirred. He  
had fallen for Princess Mercury because of that same  
blush, by a waterfall on the Northern Side of the Moon  
Gardens, while she tended to his wounds.  
  
He was brought back to the present as she answered.   
  
"No! Don't worry about it. I'll be done soon--- I  
might even get home sooner than I expected to."   
  
Although surprised by the passion behind her declining  
of his offer, Zoisite did not press her further. In  
time, Ami would tell him what was wrong. He could  
wait.   
  
"Okay then. I love you."  
  
The way Ami's eyes shone at those three small words  
was enough to dispel any and all suspicions from  
Zoisite's mind. This was the woman he loved (had loved  
and would love until his dying day), and he trusted  
her implicitly.   
  
Besides, what could be so wrong to have her keeping  
secrets from him?   
  
Famous last words.   
  
"I love you too, Zoi. I'll see you soon."  
  
Blowing him a kiss, Ami broke the connection.   
  
And wondered if she hadn't made the worst mistake of  
her life by shutting him off.   
Alone inside the library, her heart wept silently,  
feeling that she was distancing herself from the one  
man able to help her.   
  
But she couldn't tell him. Not until she knew more.   
  
She *knew* that fear led to irrational actions, and  
she had been witness to how said irrational behavior  
had gotten them into messes they had barely made it  
out of--- Mamoru had pushed Usagi away afraid his love  
for her would kill her. Usagi had pushed the *Senshi*  
away after Mamoru had died at the hands of Galaxia,  
afraid to remember what had actually happened that day  
at the airport, and had almost gotten eaten by Chaos'  
darkness. It had been out of Ami's own fear of  
loneliness that Fish Eye's illusion had taken such a  
hold of her, almost sending her into Death Sleep  
because of it.  
  
And the list went on and on.   
  
Knowledge was power, and he who knows it all will rule  
it all.   
  
She had read that somewhere and even if the second  
part of the sentence made her break into a grin (Usagi  
barely knew green from blue when she had first become  
Queen. Although not the case now, there had been some  
times in which Ami had wondered if Usagi's pure heart  
would be enough to rule an entire Kingdom. In the end,  
it had been *more* than enough), it had stuck with  
her. And she knew the first three words to be so  
painfully true that it hurt to remember them  
sometimes.   
  
Because if knowledge is power, with power comes  
responsibility--- and she had been holding the weight  
of the Universe on her tiny shoulders ever since she  
had read those scrolls.   
  
She thought about burning them and casting a Memory  
Spell on herself to forget. And then realized her  
foolishness. Just because nobody knew about it  
wouldn't keep it from happening. The fact that she had  
discovered the prophecy meant that she was supposed to  
do something about it. And do something she would.   
  
Even if it killed her in the process.   
**********************  
Hour after hour, Ami sat amidst endless rows of  
ancient books and old manuscripts, her eyes scanning  
through the words quickly, reading prophecy after  
prophecy, trying to come up with something.   
  
So far, she had found three different versions of how  
the Silver Millennium came to be, two rusty scrolls  
recounting the beauty and bravery of Serenity I and  
one recipe for Duck a' la Saturn.   
  
{I must be missing something. There must be a way to  
stop this}.   
  
That had become her motto lately--- she *was* going to  
find something. But with every book she closed, with  
every page she turned and still remained blank as to  
what to do, her resolve diminished.   
  
To her despair there was no indication of anyway to  
prevent it. The Feasting would occur, and she was  
running out of options. Telling Usagi seemed even  
outrageous now--- she would surely do something  
drastic like destroying the Crystal, and with that,  
her life. Mamoru wasn't an option either, seeing as he  
always lost his head when it came to anything that  
endangered his wife's welfare.   
  
Maybe Setsuna could help--- but Ami decided against  
it.   
  
The Senshi of Time probably knew about it anyway, and  
was already tearing her hair out for not being able to  
do anything. Although sometimes the rules could be  
bent, Time could not be broken. And Setsuna had helped  
her a lot already, starting from that first time back  
in the Moon Kingdom, where she had given a scared  
Princess some confidence in herself, pushing her into  
a whirlwind of events that almost destroyed her.   
  
Almost.   
  
That which doesn't kill you only makes you stronger,  
went the saying. And how true it could be! Ami had  
changed after her encounter with Ren... she became a  
woman, found her soul mate and gained the true  
heirloom of the Mercury Princess... and all because a  
certain green haired Senshi had a soft spot for her,  
and had moved Heaven and Hell to help her in what  
little ways she could.   
  
No, she would not go to Setsuna with this. The rest of  
the Senshi wouldn't be of much help either. What could  
they say that she hadn't already thought about?   
  
She knew she was being arrogant, and maybe even a  
little selfish--- but she was sure that there was a  
powerful reason as to why she had found the scrolls in  
the first place (timeless palimpsests did *not* just  
fall out of their hiding places just when a genius  
Queen was walking past that particular shelf), and she  
even suspected Setsuna had something to do with it:  
the mysterious woman's touch was evident in the amount  
of 'coincidences' that had lead to her discovery.   
  
Maybe Setsuna couldn't do anything about it, but who  
could blame her for trying?  
  
She thanked and feared the vote of trust given to her.  
Ami knew the older woman trusted her, and she was  
eternally grateful for it--- but hadn't Setsuna  
overestimated her? Hadn't she overrated her  
intelligence, simply assuming the blue haired Queen  
could somehow solve this?  
  
Ami sighed and took a deep breath.   
  
She was losing it and she knew it. The doctor in her  
recognized the first signs of shock crawling under her  
skin, and she couldn't let herself snap. Not now.  
Rubbing her temples and closing her eyes, she pressed  
the heel of her hands against her closed eyelids,  
trying to sort the mess in her mind.   
  
What could she possibly do? She didn't have a clue.   
  
As she rested her back on the chair, feeling drained  
and tired, her eyes scanned the library. Maybe taking  
her mind off of it would help--- a breath of fresh air  
would clear her head.   
  
She rose from her sitting place and walked down to the  
window, pushing it open with nimble fingers. As the  
crisp breeze of Mercury brushed against her cheeks,  
she sat on the windowsill, letting her light blue  
dress hang lightly on the outside.   
  
What to do, what to do? Her fingers tapped a soft  
rhythm against the stone of the castle, absently  
humming words she no longer remembered. Drawing out  
her mini computer, she began typing absently, letting  
her subconscious speak to her through Emotional  
Writing.   
  
A few minutes went by as she stared taciturnly at the  
Sun. It was enormous, and the one thing keeping it  
from burning the Mercurian Cities to the ground was  
the Magical Dome covering most of the planet. She had  
had to rebuild her home planet from scratch, as in the  
battle against the Dark Kingdom it had been completely  
and utterly destroyed.   
  
The Dome had been the first thing she had rebuilt,  
allowing life to grow on Mercurian soil for the first  
time in thousands of years.   
  
Her planet... Mercury.   
  
Although she had never spent more than a few days on  
the planet (past life not counting), it still felt  
familiar--- as a forgotten household she had returned  
to after years of being away.   
  
A soft 'beep' coming from her computer awoke her. As  
her eyes landed on the screen sitting on her lap, she  
wondered just what buttons had she been pushing--- her  
mini computer had been scanning the library, it  
seemed.   
  
Her tired eyes skimmed over the screen lazily, making  
calculations almost absently... until something caught  
her eyes. What was this?   
  
She pressed another button on her computer, and waited  
impatiently for the information to pop up. The  
Castle's blueprints... why were they even here? She  
had thought that after an entire millennia of owning  
the little thing, she and her computer shared all the  
secrets buried in its hard drive. Apparently she was  
mistaken, as click after click showed her the Castle  
as it was originally built, back in the old days when  
the Solar System was still deep into chaos and wars  
ran rampage through the now peaceful Kingdoms.   
  
She read about how a Covenant of the most powerful  
Magicians of the time hid the precious knowledge of  
the Book of Truth, afraid of it falling in the wrong  
hands. She read about how Mercury was the safest place  
to hide it in, being so close to the Sun and such a  
small planet no one would think to keep the Forbidden  
Knowledge in the otherwise unimportant  
almost-asteroid.   
  
Her eyes widened as she kept reading, realizing for  
the first time how intelligence and wisdom ran in her  
family for generation after generation--- she read how  
Queen Elondra the First vowed to keep the knowledge  
safe to the expense of her own life and her own eyes  
watered as she read of the Ruler's untimely demise  
defending the Book she had promised to protect.   
  
And she dropped the computer when she read the last  
line.   
  
'Look behind the last shelf, Ami.'   
  
Heart racing and breath quickening, Ami bent and  
picked the small computer from its spot on the floor.  
She had certainly read wrong--- her computer, as  
powerful as it was, was not sentient. Why would it be  
talking to her, then?  
  
Her left eyebrow rose a few notches when her eyes  
landed on the blackened screen. Uh? Her computer never  
crashed! Powered both by Moon Magic and her own power,  
it solved equations of unthinkable difficulty with  
ease... her mini computer just *didn't* crash!  
  
Pressing every conceivable key combination on her  
keyboard, she tried in vain to bring the blue prints  
and old documents back. The computer remained blank  
until she rebooted it, and then the records vanished.  
She had no way of knowing what file she had been  
reading, and much less if they had even existed in the  
first place.  
  
She knew hackers could not hack into her computer---  
it protected itself. That meant the file had been on  
her hard drive--- but since when?  
  
Frustrated, she closed the small computer and put it  
beside her. She eyed it for long minutes, half  
expecting it to open itself and reload the file if she  
wished it hard enough. As expected, nothing on the  
like happened and she was left with stinging eyes and  
a headache.   
  
Great. Just great. Here she was, being contacted by  
some superior entity and she reacted like a  
high-school girl, shrieking and throwing said  
connection to the floor. It was in times like these  
that she questioned her own intelligence. Closing her  
eyes and inhaling deeply, she sorted out the jumble of  
thoughts inside her mind--- or at least tried to.   
  
And that's when her tired eyes landed on the last  
bookshelf.   
  
More out of curiosity than belief, she stood up from  
her spot by the window and walked up to the last row  
of shelves, in the back of the humongous library she  
had grown to call a second home. She stopped a few  
feet short from the last shelf before turning on her  
heel and going the other way.   
  
She stopped after a few steps and cast a backwards  
glance at the beckoning piles of books.  
  
{Oh, please Ami! You're not seriously thinking this?}  
  
She swayed, hesitant, on the marble floor. To go or  
not to go---   
  
{For heaven's sake, Ami! You're actually considering  
trusting a cryptic message on your computer screen?}  
  
That did it. She had always prided herself of her  
analytical mind--- and said analytical mind was  
telling her she needed sleep and nourishment, not  
crazy midnight hunting in the dusty old library.   
  
Putting her foot down, Ami purposefully strode *away*  
from the bookshelves, picking up her computer and  
notes in the process. She was going to bed, and she  
was going to sleep and the Feasting and every other  
apocalyptic prophecy were waiting till tomorrow.   
  
As she closed the library door behind her, she  
couldn't help but feel anxious about something. When  
the loud, creaking doors closed, the bolts falling  
back into place had such a finality to them, she  
shivered unconsciously.   
  
Bed and dinner it was, then. Or was it bed and  
breakfast? She still had trouble discerning night from  
day in the quick Mercurian circadian cycle... thoughts  
of ancient prophecies and murderous crystals fled into  
her subconscious as she forced herself not to think  
about them--- after all, she always got her best ideas  
when she slept.  
*************  
TBC... 


	2. Chapter 2

** The Enemy Within **, chapter 2  
  
by Lilian  
  
lilian413@yahoo.com  
  
AN: I think some of you might've realized this is a   
continuation of sorts to my other Ami story, where   
she and Zoisite first met. Although not needed to   
understand this story at *all*, it might be fun if   
you stopped by 'First Meetings' and read it... poor   
thing gets lonely, don'tcha know?  
  
'Himeko': little Princess  
'Minna': everyone  
'fuku': uniform  
'Kinzuishou': Mamoru's Golden Crystal  
  
Maenads: Priestresses of Elysion. Kinda like the female   
versions of Helios, although nowhere near as important.  
  
(that finishes this impromptu Japanese lesson)  
  
Oh, one more thing: 'ley lines' are invisible lines of   
magic that run through Earth like roads. When a juncture   
of ley lines occurs, said place is intrinsically magical.   
For example, the Crystal Palace was built upon a   
juncture of ley lines.   
  
Enjoy and review!  
*  
  
*************************  
  
*  
"Run, and don't look back!"  
  
Haruka's voice echoed in her ears and she was running  
and running, her legs moving so fast they hurt--- one  
hand typed furiously in the computer she held with the  
other, a nasty crack running up and down the digital  
screen.   
  
Her visor was over her eyes, but the blood running  
down her forehead still made it hard to see.   
  
Someone was crying beside her and as she looked  
sideways, her right foot lodged into a rock and she  
stumbled a few steps before recovering her balance.  
Her heart thundered in her ears and she felt something  
wet mingling with her blood--- it took her a second or  
two to realize they were tears.   
  
She blinked them away, trying to make some sense of  
the wasteland that lay before them as she plunged deep  
into the chaos, her hands still clicking away at the  
keyboard.   
  
"Damn it, Ami, look out!"   
  
The warning came from her left, and with a battle  
instinct she did not know she possessed, she ducked  
with no questions asked. The blast swerved past her  
quickly, zinging the spot where her shoulder had been  
just a few seconds before.  
  
As she rolled through the dirt, she caught sight of  
her friends. Mako-chan was looking at her through half  
lidded eyes, Senshi uniform broken and torn as if she  
had just escaped from a bloody battle. As Ami picked  
herself up and took a look at herself, she realized  
she wasn't in any better shape.   
  
She nodded at Makoto once, telling her without words  
that she was fine. But she was nowhere near fine---  
Zoisite was dead, Usagi was dead--- Crystal Tokyo was  
gone and they were running down Elysion, trying  
helplessly to lose an enemy that just kept coming.   
  
As they resumed their mad dash through what had once  
been the peaceful, beautiful Land of Dreams, Ami  
forced the despair back and made herself focus on the  
task ahead. They had to get Small Lady to safety---  
with Usagi and Mamoru gone, the pink-haired little  
girl was their last hope at somehow stopping this...  
  
As Minako clutched the limp girl into her arms and  
jumped a falling column with ease, Ami couldn't help  
but wonder if the small Princess (Queen, she told  
herself. Chibi-Usa was Queen now, and no longer Chibi,  
with Usagi gone...) would be of any help. Witnessing  
the death of her own mother in the hands of what had  
once been the Dream Silver Crystal was shock enough to  
send anyone into catatonia...   
  
"Just a hundred more feet, minna!"  
  
Her voice barely made it above the ruckus of crashing  
thunder and lightning, as the skies of the ever-green  
Land of Hope became black as night and eternal winter  
fell on them with a vengeance.  
  
The ominous darkness that crawled through the skies  
seemed to reach out for them with sticky tendrils, and  
Ami swallowed the lump of fear that formed in the back  
of her throat as she watched the Maenads try and buy   
them some time.   
  
The Altar, they had to make it to the Altar!   
  
Ami bit her lips as her visor crackled in response to  
the massive amounts of energy gathering behind them.   
  
{Don't look back, whatever you do, just don't look  
back!} The frantic string of words ran up and down her  
head a million times a second, Haruka's last words  
ringing in her ears like a shrill warning.   
  
Through the corner of her eye, she saw Rei stumbling  
over her high heels for the third time, and cursed  
whoever superior entity had designed their fukus.  
Slowing down just a fraction of a second, she made a  
move to turn back and help her dark-haired friend---  
the miko priestess looked at her in the eye, the fire  
burning in them rivaling that of her strongest attack  
and shook her head almost imperceptibly.   
  
'Don't,' they said, without voice and yet screaming  
their warning.  
  
Ami turned her eyes forward just in time to avoid the  
raised roots of an ancient oak. To get tangled in them  
would mean death, because she knew the darkness was  
looming closer--- she could hear it in the screams  
behind her, in the claps of lightning and explosions  
of power as minute by minute, the last standing  
Bastion of Earth was brought a little bit closer to  
its end.   
  
In the distance, the Altar greeted their tired eyes,  
and a glimmer of hope made it into their hearts. If  
only they could get there in time--- Helios would help  
them for sure. The sweet spoken Priest had been  
defending Elysion until then, and with his help and  
Chibi-Usa's power they could rein back the  
unstoppable force of the Ginzuishou, as the Crystal  
unleashed its power without an owner to keep it  
controlled.   
  
Something behind them growled and Ami did not want to  
know what it was. Her right hand clicked the visor  
away and she barely had a second to adjust to the  
change of view before they flew into the Temple,  
breaths haggard, bodies exhausted.   
  
As she tended to Chibi-Usa's wounds, Rei and Makoto  
bolted the doors behind them, keeping the darkness  
outside. An ear-splitting howl echoed around them, and  
she knew it wouldn't last long. They needed to find  
Helios *now*!  
  
"We have to keep moving. Deeper, into the heart of the  
Temple."   
  
Minako took off quickly, knowing her Senshi would  
follow her. Makoto was carrying Chibi-Usa this time,  
the taller, stronger woman in better shape than their  
leader. Ami thought she heard the chestnut haired  
woman whisper comforting words into the young girl's  
ear, but she could not tell for sure...  
  
As their heels click-clacked on the marble floors,  
they heard hollow thumping through the corridors they  
had just exited, as the darkness tried to get in.  
Without the Maenads to keep Evil away (Ami was sure   
they had to be dead by now; no one fought against the   
Ginzuishou and won), it run rampant through the heavenly   
land of Elysion--- but not for long if they could do   
anything about it.   
  
Ami all but ran into Minako as the Venus Senshi  
stopped dead in her tracks.   
  
"What is it?" she asked, her voice sounding empty and  
weary to her own ears. She had screamed her throat raw  
when she had found her husband dead...  
  
"Something's wrong."   
  
Before them stood the Gold Doors of Elysion, and  
behind them, Helios waited... but as Minako's eyes  
became lost in the intricate design of the threshold,  
Ami felt it too. There was no sound coming from inside  
the Sacred Chamber, whereas Helios incessant chanting  
should've resounded around them from miles away.  
  
She knew what her scan would show her even before she  
asked her computer for it. But that did not make it  
any easier to deal with.   
  
As Rei pushed open the gold door with trembling hands,  
Ami prayed, oh God she prayed that her computer was  
wrong, that Helios was not dead, that the Sacred Flame  
was not out--- but with Usagi gone, miracles just  
didn't happen anymore.   
  
Chibi-Usa made a strange sound when her ruby-red eyes  
captured the sight in front of her. It was something  
in between a sob and a whimper, but Ami was too  
dismayed to care. She felt her mini computer sliding  
through her fingers and she only realized she had  
dropped it when the sharp, sickening crack of the  
screen breaking completely reverberated around her.   
  
{No}  
  
Helios lay on the floor, the otherwise healthy glow of  
the Kinzuishou settled upon his forehead dull and  
dead. With the Prince of Earth gone, so had died the  
light of their only hope.   
  
They had hoped that with the Kinzuishou in their  
hands, they could've somehow controlled the magic of  
the Ginzuishou. With Chibi-Usa linked to both  
Crystals, maybe they could've done something--- it  
seemed the Golden Crystal only recognized Mamoru Chiba  
as its true owner, and with him gone, all hope was  
lost.   
  
The Gold Doors shook with an unseen blow, and they  
watched with wide eyes as the darkness began eating  
through the magical doorway with ease. Ami looked into  
Minako's eyes, trying to get some hope back into her  
own heart.  
  
She found none.   
  
"What now, minna?"   
  
The impossibly dark tendrils of magic flowed through  
the doors and headed out towards them slowly, as if  
enjoying watching them squirm.   
  
None of them made any move to attack or defend  
themselves--- the mighty Outer Senshi had given their  
lives to try and buy them time to get away and wasted  
all their energy in the process. In the end, they had  
only delayed the inevitable...   
  
Makoto simply clutched the whimpering Chibi-Usa to her  
breast, in a way that Ami knew Usagi had once done.   
  
"It'll be all right, himeko, it will be all right."  
  
The brunette's words sounded empty to Ami's ears, but  
she thanked to anyone who was listening (if there was  
anyone at all) that Chibi-Usa had someone to cling  
to--- she was just a child, a small orphaned child...  
they were grown women and had suffered the horrors of  
battle before. But there really was no way of  
preparing for death, now was there?   
  
Ami never knew when the cirri touched her. One moment,  
she was staring deep into Rei's eyes, and the next,  
everything was cold and dark and dead and she couldn't  
breathe and she tried grasping at something  
(anything!) but there was nothing there, just the  
endless, vast darkness of the void inside the  
Ginzuishou...   
  
There was no noise afterwards.   
*  
  
**************************  
  
*  
She bolted upright in bed, her hands clawing at the  
empty air and her lungs aching with the lack of  
oxygen. Her sharp, sudden scream echoed around the  
stone room like a single bolt of thunder, and it came  
back to her amplified a thousand times.   
  
"NO!"  
  
She gasped, trying in vain to collect her thoughts and  
calm the beating of her thundering heart.   
  
{Nightmare, it was just a nightmare, Ami...} she tried  
telling herself over and over again, but somehow, she  
knew it was not. As a Senshi, she had had her share of  
prophetic dreams--- they came with the Sailor fuku and  
the power over certain elements. But still, they had  
never been her forte. Rei, Usagi, even Michiru--- they  
were the ones to whom the Powers spoke through dreams.  
  
She, on the other hand, dismissed most of her dreams  
as what they were to her: reflections of her  
metabolism while she slept. And that was that.   
  
But then again, sometimes they weren't... she could  
still remember the cold, overpowering feeling of the  
Silence as it crawled through the streets of Tokyo  
eating everything on its path. The same unnerving hum  
was coursing through her veins right now, that sixth  
sense some called intuition, blaring in her ears that  
this dream was not the result of late night snacking.   
  
This was something else all together.   
  
Kicking the covers back, she ignored the sudden cold  
of the palace's marble floors under her naked feet,  
and all but flew through the corridors of the  
seemingly empty palace. The Library, she needed to get  
to the library!  
  
As she entered, the door closed behind her and the  
bolt clicked into place. She barely acknowledged it,  
and a distant part of her brain realized she had never  
touched it--- she didn't care.   
  
Her eyes fixed on the last row of shelves, she leaned  
back against the closed door and took a deep breath.  
Whatever it was that remained hidden behind the  
shelves, was calling her. She could feel it now, could  
feel the pull reeling her in, whispering her name in  
the back of her mind as it enveloped her completely.   
  
How come she hadn't heard it the first time?   
  
The memory of the dream fresh in her mind, she took a  
few steps forward and the library creaked around her  
as if coming to life. She forced her quickening  
heartbeat down, forced herself to not run away and  
kept on walking. Her pace was slow, but she couldn't  
move any quicker.   
  
'It'll be all right, himeko.' Like a butterfly in the  
spring, Mako-chan's voice came to haunt her from the  
recesses of her mind. The fear, the terror of death  
still lingered within her, and Ami shivered as the  
image of the otherwise brave warrior clutching a  
whimpering girl to her bosom.   
  
No. She would not let that happen. No matter what it  
took, her dear Mako-chan would never fear death like  
she had in her dream--- be it heaven or hell, Ami was  
going to make things better.   
  
With newfound resolution, she strode forward  
purposefully, her bare feet barely making noise  
against the rocky floor. Her nightgown fluttered  
around her and became sticky against her legs, as if  
somehow trying to keep her away. She ignored it, and  
faced the last row of shelves with a critical eye.   
  
As if in cue with her stare, a distant rumble echoed  
around her, and the shelf began moving on its own  
accord, the moan of gears centuries old resounding in  
her ears. Surprised, she took a step back, allowing  
the impossibly heavy furniture to slide effortlessly  
across the floor, unveiling a long, narrow corridor  
behind it.   
  
Swallowing her doubts and fears, she entered the  
darkness. As if knowing someone was inside it, a  
thousand torches burst into life--- magically  
empowered, she thought to herself, as she felt the  
disturbance in the ley lines running deep into the  
heart of Mercury.   
  
For what seemed an eternity, she walked down the  
hallway, the light of the torches casting her shadow  
across the marble floor--- her soft breathing breaking  
the silence, her wide eyes darting back and forth as  
if searching for something. What, even she did not  
know.   
  
She reached a door, and it seemed so ominous just  
standing there, in the middle of nowhere that she  
seriously considered turning back and forgetting about  
the whole thing. The memory of Chibi-Usa's haunted  
eyes and her own mind-numbing fear kept her rooted on  
the spot.   
  
"Get a grip, Ami," she told herself through clenched  
teeth, almost jumping in surprise as the endless walls  
around her acted like amplifiers and magnified her  
voice a thousand times.   
  
As the echo of her words died out, the floor rumbled  
once again and she braced herself, not knowing what to  
expect. In the end, the golden surface of the door  
rippled and changed, disappearing from sight. In its  
place, a long mirror appeared, covering the entrance  
from top to bottom.   
  
Curious, she leaned forward to take a look.  
  
She did not see herself.   
  
Or rather, she did not see herself as she was now,  
leaning into the mirror to take a look--- instead, she  
saw herself reading a book. A large, obviously  
ancient, obviously powerful book. Her own trembling  
fingers were passing the pages slowly and she was  
shocked to realize she was wearing the same nightgown  
she was sporting right now.   
  
Did this mean she was seeing the future?  
  
Her other self came to a stop at a certain page and  
Ami watched helplessly as her eyes widened and she bit  
back a scream. Whatever it was her self from the other  
side of the mirror had seen had horrified her---   
  
Was that the Book of Truth? Was she reading the pages  
of the Forbidden Book? The memory of her computer  
incident just a few hours back came with a vengeance,  
and she remembered reading that whoever dared to flip  
the pages of the Book of Truth suffered an untimely  
death...  
  
"Oblivion."  
  
The word came to her from across the traslucid surface  
and neither she nor the other Ami had spoken it. But  
they both heard it because as one, their heads snapped  
up and looked at each other.   
  
Deeply into each other's eyes, Ami lost herself among  
her own cerulean depths, seeing the bottomless abyss  
of her own soul.   
  
"Destruction."  
  
The ethereal voice came from nowhere and everywhere at  
the same time, and both Ami's listened in silence,  
never once looking away from each other. Ami could see  
herself reflected in the mirror, could see the  
similarities in between them: the same hair cut, the  
same small scar next to her right ear. The same  
sapphire necklace around her neck, the same nightgown  
covering her body.   
  
But she could also see the differences.   
  
The other Ami was pregnant.   
  
Almost six months pregnant, said the doctor in her,  
recognizing the obvious swelling of her tummy and  
turgid breasts. The nightgown curved and flowed around  
her in intricate patterns from a window that did not  
exist, but it did nothing to hide the beautiful arch  
of the life growing inside of her.   
  
Amazed, Ami placed a hand against the mirror.   
  
She had been trying for so long... she and Zoisite had  
tried everything, and nothing had worked. The rest of  
the Senshi all had children and even grandchildren but  
she had remained barren as her friends abdomens  
expanded. She had brought all those wonderful children  
to the world, but she had none to call her own.   
  
And she wanted to-- for the first time in centuries,  
she wanted to.   
  
And she couldn't.   
  
As a doctor, she knew the impossibility of becoming  
pregnant after performing the tests in order. She knew  
no life would ever grown inside of her, no baby would  
ever kick... a genetic trait that had prevented her  
mother from giving her the brothers and sisters she  
had always wanted had been passed on to her, and as a  
result, her eternal body did not have what it took to  
conceive.   
  
But here she was, staring into the face of  
impossibility, watching it shatter into a million and  
one pieces...   
  
"How?" she asked her reflection, tears welling in her  
eyes. The other Ami approached the mirror carefully,  
and seemed as curious as she was as to why were they  
able to see each other.   
  
"A miracle," the reflection said in the end, her face  
softening as she recognized her kindred soul in the  
strange reflection that seemed to have a life of its  
own.   
  
For a semi-eternal span of time, they looked at each  
other. And then the other Ami raised her hand and  
placed it against her own. Through the unyielding  
glass surface, Ami could feel the faint warmth of her  
hand. She knew it wasn't possible, but she also knew  
that magic didn't not follow the rules of physics and  
time...  
  
"But it came too late," continued the other Ami, her  
eyes watering to mirror Ami's. Her hand lowered to her  
lap and cupped her protruding belly in a tender  
embrace. "The Crystal is here."   
  
Behind her, the book she had been reading slammed shut  
and the other Ami jumped. The terror that flew across  
her eyes was fleeting, but Ami saw it nonetheless.   
  
"Let me help!" she heard herself say and her hands  
strained to reach the other one across the time gap  
that separated them. But the mirror kept them  
separated, barely an inch away and yet centuries  
apart.   
  
"You cannot. I do not exist yet, Ami, and you know  
it."  
  
The other Ami's words were lacking of any feeling  
whatsoever and it was clear she had abandoned all  
hope. Ami's fists banged against the vitreous barrier  
between them and she watched with wide eyes as  
something, she couldn't say what, began appearing  
behind her other self.   
  
That Ami turned and took a deep breath as she saw the  
gathering mass of darkness that began taking shape. As  
she turned back to Ami, her hands protected her belly  
in a hopeless attempt to defend the small life that  
would never see the light of day.  
  
"She never stood a chance, Ami. None of us did. But  
now you know... prevent it! You can, I know you can...  
don't let it happen again. For us, for the future---  
for little Athena, who will never live to see what a  
wonderful place this Earth is!"   
  
"No!" screamed Ami, her lithe fingers trying in vain  
to penetrate the granite surface.   
  
But there was nothing she could do.   
  
In the end, she watched helplessly as the darkness  
mounted and exploded in a sudden discharge of shadow.  
As the other Ami was consumed by the blast, one last  
word echoed around Ami: 'Please!'  
  
And then the mirror shattered, countless shards of  
glass flying around, flaying her skin and chafing her  
hands.   
  
She did not feel it.   
  
She just lay there, eyes wide and unseen, the shards  
of mirror laying around her like millions of  
glistening tears, as if making up for her lack of  
reaction. A soft rivulet of blood made its way down  
her face and she only realized she was bleeding when a  
lone crimson droplet landed on her exposed hand.   
  
As she looked at the scarlet stain, she was reminded  
of something she had read once before: 'Out damn spot!  
Out I say!'   
  
The caustic words seemed oddly fitting as they came to  
her mind and she brushed her hand against the  
whiteness of her nightgown, uncaring of the offensive  
ruby smear that bruised the otherwise pristine  
clothing.   
  
She had had what she so wanted. She had a child--- and  
it had all been taken away from her in an instant, as  
the Ginzuishou came to life and in doing so, drained  
it from everything else around it.   
  
Was Fate hell-bent on keeping her miserable?   
  
Forcing her jumbled thoughts to a stop, she took a  
deep breath and rose. Her wavering eyes narrowed at  
the sight of the gaping maw in front of her, where  
once a mirror had stood. It called her, beckoned her  
to enter... and she was going to. She was going to  
prevent all this from happening, even if it was the  
last thing she ever did.   
  
As she walked through the darkness and into the deeper  
corners of the castle, a lone certainty settled on her  
heart.   
  
It probably would be the last thing she ever did.   
*  
  
**************  
  
*  
TBC...  
  
Yui: don't worry! Yo tampoco soy norteamericana! De hecho, soy chilena. Ojalá que te haya gustado este capítulo.   
  
Taerir: I'm enjoying your ongoing series too, so I'm really flattered you liked this little fic of mine.   
  
wyannick54: Ami fics are always welcome, aren't they? I hope I met up to your expectations.   
  
Michelle Ann/Myst Lady: Don't you worry, I'm not stopping. In addition to this chapter, two more are waiting to be posted.   
  
Adyen: of *course* she's going to look. After all, if she didn't, then we'd have no story, would we? 


	3. Chapter 3

** The Enemy Within **, chapter 3  
  
by Lilian  
  
lilian413@yahoo.com  
  
Disclaimer: SM and all related characters do not belong to   
me. Naoko Takeuchi owns them, and other assorted companies   
I know nothing about.   
  
  
******************  
  
  
Zoisite was sitting in the living room, a forgotten poetry   
book on his lap. Although he had had every intention of   
finishing this latest acquisition of XVIIth century work, his   
mind was somewhere else--- thousands of miles away,   
actually, trying to reach his wife on a distant planet.   
  
He knew she was hurting.   
  
And he also knew what was wrong-- at least he thought he   
knew.   
  
He had been there when Rei had broken the news to   
everyone; the wide smile Jadeite hadn't been able to hide   
throughout the entire afternoon hindering some of the surprise. But   
still, the great news had made the girls explode in glee as   
they faced the prospect of aunt-hood again.  
  
He hadn't meant to look at Ami that directly. He had just   
been contemplating the overjoyed group of women shriek and   
laugh as they all clasped Rei's hands and gave her various   
recommendations on what to do and what not to do when the   
cravings came, as if forgetting Rei herself had been through   
two other pregnancies before.   
  
He, on the other hand, had been on the other group,   
congratulating the goofy-grinning Jedite. He had just given   
Jedite a hard slap on the back and Nephrite was making some   
comment or other when something in his heart had stirred. He   
had looked up and he had watched as Ami took a few steps   
backwards, away from the giggling circle of women.   
  
He had seen the way her beautiful eyes had clouded in   
despair, had seen the unconscious holding of her own belly,   
still perfect and flat.   
  
And he had understood.  
  
Before he could gather her up in his arms and kiss her   
worries away, Ami had bolted from the room and he had been   
drawn into another group hug. By the time he was able to   
weasel his way out of it, Ami had been long gone.   
  
He had gotten home only to find a recorded message of his   
wife where she all too happily proclaimed she was going   
back to Mercury for a few days, that she needed to work on   
some new developments for Phobos' and Deimos' terraforming   
plans, and that she'd be back in a few days.   
  
Any and all attempts at contacting her were graciously   
declined and when he had finally managed to talk to her (just   
last afternoon), the shadow of grief had already fled from   
her eyes and Zoisite was hesitant to ask her about it.   
  
Even if they shared a love matched by few others, he also   
knew when Ami did not want to talk. And this issue was one   
that had brought the few fights they had ever had to   
endure.   
  
He sighed. He had married the most intelligent woman in   
the world, and his own mind wasn't too shabby either--- and   
still, sometimes they were like mules in their stubbornness.   
He snickered at the thought. If people knew how logic flew   
out the window whenever they were together, they wouldn't   
have let Usagi name them Joint Education Ministers...  
  
He knew she was there before he saw her. A sudden change   
in the air around him and he looked up at the door. It was   
slightly ajar and Ami was leaning against the frame in   
silence, in a posture so--- heartbreaking, Zoisite felt like   
reaching out to her and hugging her for dear life.   
  
The haunted look in her eyes stopped him.   
  
Instead, he put the book aside and rose slowly. There was   
a tautness to her stance that hadn't been there before and   
for a brief second, he was reminded of when he had first   
met her, back in the Silver Millennium--- by a fountain she   
had stood, the same frightened look in her eyes.   
  
"I missed you, my sweet angel".   
  
His words hung between them for the space of three   
heartbeats before she answered.   
  
"Me too".  
  
Without giving him time to react, she bolted forwards and   
snuggled deep within his embrace. As his arms came around   
her and his chin rested on the top of her head, he felt the   
quivering of her body as desperate sobs rocked her.   
  
"Hold me tight, Zoi-chan", she muttered in between two   
sobs and a tear, and Zoisite could do nothing but comply. He   
whispered silly nonsense to her, inarticulate words in seven   
different languages, but all meaning the same thing:   
  
"I'm here, love. I'm here".   
  
They stood there for hours to no end, communicating   
without words. And he dared not press her to tell him what was   
wrong--- every time he as much as approached the subject, her   
face would contort in a grimace that struck such a deep   
chord within him that he felt as if it was him the one   
suffering.   
  
So he simply held her, and she was thankful for that.   
  
He didn't know how long it had been until she softly   
looked up to him, eyes rimmed with red and yet still managing to   
take his breath away.  
  
"Thank you".  
  
He nodded and brushed a stray tear making its way down her   
cheek. "Will you tell me what's wrong?", he asked her,   
hearing her heart beating against his chest as if it was his   
own.   
  
She shook her head once, her long blue-black bangs   
covering her eyes for a split second. "I cannot. It is not my   
secret to give away".   
  
And that was all she was saying about it, and he knew it.   
That didn't mean he had to like it any better...   
  
"Ami...", his voice took a pleading tone as he tried to   
coerce her into telling him. Whenever he whined at her, her   
resolve would melt--- this time, her beautiful pupils   
hardened to the point of steel and she shook her head, harder   
this time.   
  
"Don't make me lie to you, Zoi, please".   
  
As he fought for something to say, she snuggled back into   
his chest and her hands encircled his waist once more,   
ending the conversation. In a reflex born out of two lifetimes   
together, his own arms hugged her tight again, but he felt   
her fleeting heartbeat thundering across the room.   
  
"I won't Ami, not if you ask me to. But it kills me to see   
you like this".   
  
She remained quiet after he spoke, as if pondering the   
right thing to say. In the end, it was after a particularly   
deep breath that she found her voice: "Give me until   
tomorrow, Zoi. Everything will become clear tomorrow".   
  
That eased his worry some. At least, they had reached a   
compromise--- quite a rarity for two stubborn minds as   
theirs.   
  
"Till tomorrow it is, then".   
  
They lapsed into another long silence after that.   
  
When she stood on her tiptoes and nibbled on his earlobe,   
he almost jumped right out of his skin.   
  
It was seldom that Ami initiated any of their intimate   
encounters--- it was usually him doing the seducing and Ami   
the seduced... that was fine with him. One of the pleasures   
in his life was making her blush, and with almost three   
hundred years of knowing each other, he had found it incredibly   
stimulating.   
  
And he also knew things like that did not change   
overnight. As his hands settled on her waist and softly pushed her   
backwards, trying to get a glimpse of her face to try and   
understand what she was doing, Ami's grip on his shoulders   
tightened.   
  
"Don't. Please, just this once, let me...".  
  
He battled with himself, debating whether to let her   
continue or not. He knew his fare share of human psychology, and   
he *knew* this was not normal--- if only she would stop   
trailing kisses across his jaw and her fingers stop playing   
with his ponytail he could think straight and tell her...   
what?   
  
When her lips founds his and they fused in one of the most   
passionate kisses they had ever shared, all thoughts of   
stopping her flew out the window.   
  
He held her tight against him, and he felt something give   
within her in the way her body relaxed against his own and   
she all but wrapped herself around him.   
  
He never knew how they made it to the bed, but somehow   
they did.   
  
  
**************************  
  
  
Ami woke up with a start, cold sweat covering her   
forehead. For a brief instant, panic flooded through her, one   
thought in her mind.   
  
{It's too late!}  
  
But then, she took in the semi-darkness outside, the first   
indications of the world barely waking up... and the fact   
that she wasn't in the planet Mercury but on Earth, inside   
Zoisite's arms...   
  
Trying to calm her frantic breathing, she looked up to   
find Zoisite sleeping peacefully, seemingly undisturbed by her   
sudden motion.   
  
His beautiful gray-green eyes were still closed and his   
chest moved up and   
down, lulling her like a baby. His hair was still tied in   
his custom ponytail and she fought the urge to run her   
fingers through it. That would surely wake him up, and for what   
she needed to do, she needed him asleep.  
  
Squirming out of his hold carefully, she never took her   
eyes off of him, drinking in his features.   
  
So handsome, so very handsome... and all hers. She had   
been blessed with the most wonderful husband she could've ever   
dreamed of, and she loved him and he loved her   
unconditionally. She should've known it would never work.   
  
At least not forever.   
  
She had been so tempted to tell him the truth last night.   
Inside his arms, snuggled against his chest, she had all   
but blurted it out to him, all this ludicrous plan of hers---   
but she knew better. In the end, levelheaded, logical Ami   
took control and pushed the desperate, irrational Ami back.   
  
If she told him, he would try to stop her.   
  
If she told him, he would probably attempt this himself.   
And she was *not* endangering him (any of them, for that   
matter) because she was too afraid to do what she knew she had   
to do.   
  
When she had walked across the shattered mirror that   
fateful night she had sealed her own destiny by becoming the one   
and only person who could stop the Feasting from occurring.   
She alone knew how to stop it, and she alone would do it.   
  
Leaning forwards, she kissed Zoisite's lips, breathing the   
same air for a brief second.   
  
"I love you, Zoi-chan".   
  
Turning away from him was the hardest thing she had ever   
done. But it needed to be done. So she did.   
  
Her slender legs came out from under the sheets and   
allowed her to stand up. She stretched a couple of times, letting   
her sore muscles relax and start working altogether.   
Looking back one last time, she crossed the door and left, trying   
not to think on her sleeping husband.   
  
Her nudity was not something she was ashamed of. Besides,   
privacy was something ensured in Crystal Tokyo. Still, when   
she was outside the room, she changed into some clothes;   
the first ones she laid her fingers on. She didn't care what   
she was going to wear; it was just a precaution in case her   
transformation reversed.   
  
Taking a few precious moments to herself, she sat down at   
a desk and wrote a letter to her husband. A long letter   
where she explained her findings, told him the place where to   
find the manuscripts and of the shattered mirror where she   
had seen herself.   
  
Of the daughter they would never have, of the Feasting and   
of the truth behind the telling of the Ginzuishou legend.   
  
But most of all, she told him he loved him.   
  
With all her heart, with all her soul, she loved him---   
and that was why she was doing this. Because she could not   
let him die, not if there was every anything she could do   
about it.   
  
As she put the pen down, her hand trembling and staining   
the bottom of the paper with ink, she took off her wedding   
ring and set it down next to the letter. And then she   
realized she had forgone the most common means of communication   
of the Neo Silver Millennium (recording crystals), but she   
was repulsed by the idea of touching a crystal at all, much   
less record her message to Zoisite in one.   
  
She would not let their love be corrupted by what she was   
about to do, and as her wedding ring winked at her from the   
table, she realized it stood for so much more than their   
love--- it stood for their trust in each other, for their   
link that went beyond life and death and had survived a Dark   
Kingdom (twice) and an eternity of shadows.   
  
She stood up, pushing the chair back against the desk. No   
point in leaving a mess...  
  
As she held her transformation pen in her hand, it felt   
incredibly heavy... Staring deep into the diaphanous jewel   
atop of the henshin pen, she noticed for the first time how   
the insignia was crowned with snow-white little wings.   
  
"Mercury Crystal Power... Make-up!".   
  
As the familiar tendrils of magic wrapped themselves   
around her, a wave of hope flooded her. All the power she had   
should be enough. It had to be enough.   
  
Absently smoothing out non-existing wrinkles in her fuku,   
she took one last look around. This was her home. It had   
been for ages now. This house had become a part of her. Of   
her and Zoisite's life. Now, she would never see it again.   
And it hurt more than she thought it would.   
  
{Enough!. You have a duty to fulfill. Stop brooding, and   
get moving!}.   
  
She gritted her teeth and ran out of the house, tears   
running down her cheeks. So early in the morning, few peasants   
witnessed such a weird picture: a crying Senshi, running as   
if Hell was high on her heels, straight towards the Palace.   
  
As she ran, her boots click-clacking on the pavement, her   
plan circled across her mind countless times as an endless   
mantra. She had come up with in after reading the Book of   
Truth that lay deep inside the Planet Mercury. It had been   
waiting for her behind the door-turned-mirror-turned door,   
and it had opened just on the page she needed as soon as her   
fingers had first touched the impossibly soft cover.  
  
She had seen it once before, she had even read it once   
before--- or would read it once more. Or had she read it   
already, considering that alternate future did not exist   
anymore? Then, maybe she had never read it in the first place...  
  
Thinking about time always gave her a headache. She never   
knew how Setsuna managed...  
  
The Book of Truth answered one question and one question   
alone. And she had known what she wanted to ask ever since   
she had first come across the Feasting scrolls. It had taken   
its time in answering her, as if the Book was considering   
her as a worthy recipient of its immense knowledge.   
  
Just she had been about to turn on her heels and leave,   
the pages had turned on their own accord, and it had all been   
there for her eyes to see.   
  
'You must find the Crystal when Serenity is sleeping ...   
that is the time when their guards are low. You must   
remember, the Crystal and Serenity are symbiotic beings. They are   
one entity. As such, you will never accomplish anything   
unless you yourself become attuned with the Crystal. And for   
that to actually happen, they both must be dormant'.   
  
That was a simple thing to do. Being Queen hadn't altered   
Usagi's sleeping hours much--- there were no Royal   
appearances until late morning. The fact that she now shared a bed   
with Mamoru was a distraction too. It wasn't hard to see   
them flushed and wanting when their presence was requested   
earlier than usual.   
  
The next part was much harder, though.   
  
'Once you are in possession of the Crystal, you must focus   
on your power.   
Try to make it explode: you need to awaken the Crystal's   
hunger before it is due. Once the thirst is awakened, nothing   
will satisfy it, nothing short of draining whomever is   
holding it dry'.  
  
She was scared. Oh yes she was. She knew it would hurt. A   
lot. And pain was something she didn't deal very well   
with--- that's why she had become a doctor in the first place.   
To alleviate other people's pain.   
  
'Once the Feasting begins, the Ginzuishou will turn to its   
closest source of energy. You. That is the only way of   
saving Serenity, Ami, and you know it. By sacrificing your own   
life'.  
  
The fact that the Book had addressed her by her first name   
hadn't surprised her as much as it should've. Maybe she   
was becoming jaded, but she was used to impossibly powerful   
ancient artifacts having a trick of two up their sleeves.   
Then again, the Book didn't have sleeves, but she could've   
sworn she had heard it sigh when the words had appeared on   
the otherwise pristine pages.   
  
Maybe even impossibly powerful ancient artifacts had   
feelings...  
  
As she all but flew by the guards, she acknowledged their   
bow with a nod of her own. When questioned later, the   
Palace Guard would remember seeing tears on her face.   
  
Ami ran, knowing the Royal Family hadn't awakened yet. But   
she only had about fifteen minutes before Serenity would   
open her eyes, and the Crystal would be again linked with her   
soul. And that way, it would only follow her orders.   
  
Through the corridors and hallways, her stealthy running   
lead her to the Sacred Room where the Crystal was kept. Only   
The Moon Maidens could enter that room, the lock   
recognizing DNA structure; but she was the master of hackers: and   
she herself had designed the locks--- of what use is a   
creator if she can't dominate its creation? She could easily   
overpass the security system.   
  
When she reached the door, she stopped dead in her tracks.   
  
Her mind kept telling her to stop, to turn around, to go   
away... but she   
silenced it by taking out her mini computer. Throughout the   
centuries, she had modernized it several times, and now it   
was barely the small scanning device Luna had given her all   
those years ago.   
  
When she opened it, it immediately beeped, telling her   
someone was near. Looking at the screen, she saw as a pink dot   
was moving towards where she was. And a pink dot meant   
Small Lady was near. So, she had less than five minutes to do   
what she had to do, before Chibi-usa discovered her.   
  
Quickly, she pressed some keys on her keyboard, and made   
some mental calculations... when she was sure everything was   
correct, she looked around one more time, and pressed the   
'enter' button. A click echoed in the empty hallway, and the   
door opened. She entered, and carefully closed it behind   
her.   
  
Once inside, she turned her eyes towards the Ginzuishou.   
  
It was there, shinning in all its glory. For a second, Ami   
considered the fact that she could be mistaken--- nothing   
so beautiful and splendid could be evil... but then she   
remembered her brief glimpse into what could be, and her   
resolve strengthened.   
  
{I won't let it happen again. I won't}.   
  
She walked up to the pedestal where the crystal sat, calm   
and unaware of its surroundings.   
  
Nothing protected the Crystal from her now. In the   
centuries that had passed since Chibi-Usa had first met them, back   
in the XXth century, Usagi had developed a much deeper   
connection with the Ginzuishou than her prior (or future,   
thinking about things such as time paradoxes was demanding even   
to her agile mind) self as Neo Queen Serenity ever had.   
Hence, there were no locks or alarms around the crystal, as it   
was quite capable of defending itself.  
  
And because of the fact they had realized it simply did   
not work with Evil. Its power could only be harnessed by   
Usagi herself--- which worked all the better for her. She did   
not want to tap into its power; she merely wanted to awaken   
the sentient-like entity that seemed to reside within the   
crystal itself.  
  
To awaken the Feasting, and prevent hell from reaching   
this Earth she loved so much.   
  
She held her breath, unwillingly feeling the fear of the   
unknown grabbing hold of her. Gathering her wits, she leaned   
forward and captured the Ginzuishou with her hands.   
  
She had expected pain, or even warmth... there was   
nothing.   
  
The crystal fit perfectly within her hands and it nestled   
there quite comfortably, as if it was still hovering   
aimlessly above the plinth it had previously occupied.   
  
As she looked at the seemingly harmless jewel in her   
palms, she realized the deeper she looked, the more she saw. It   
was like catching glimpses and flashes of different   
movies--- like zapping through channels at an amazing speed,   
you're unable to *see* anything in particular but you know   
there's something there.   
  
She squinted, trying to get a better look.   
  
The images within the crystal's layers simply whirled   
faster, and she felt dizzy. Just as she snapped out of her   
trance, the doorknob jingled. She almost dropped the Ginzuishou   
as she jumped, but the lock held.   
  
Who was it? No one should be there this time of the   
morning! The Crystal hadn't hummed, which meant Usagi was still   
asleep.... the faint voice on the other side of the door was   
familiar, and she didn't have a hard time identifying it:   
Chibi-Usa.   
  
If she entered the room, the Silver Crystal would activate   
in the presence of the Moon bloodline... and all her work   
would be wasted. They would think nothing of her presence in   
the Sacred Chamber, but she doubted she would ever go this   
far again. Once given the time to seriously consider what   
she was about to do, she would probably panic and bolt and   
she couldn't afford that.   
  
She couldn't let it happen.   
  
Calling on her power, she froze the lock. The crystal in   
her hand glittered in response to the call of the magic of   
the ley lines, but other than that showed no response to   
her.   
  
As Chibi-Usa rattled the doorknob one more time, Ami   
realized her time had been considerably shortened. It was now or   
never...  
  
She breathed deeply and closed her eyes. Through the   
closed door, she could hear some pushing against the magically   
reinforced doorway, followed by a sharp, familiar voice.   
Small Lady, and someone else--- it sounded like Rei... she   
stopped listening to outside noises, and focused on herself.   
  
Going into her inner core, she gathered her power.   
  
At first, it was just a small aura around her. She reached   
deep into her, and called onto Mercury. Flashes began   
dancing in front of her closed eyes, yet she *knew* it wasn't   
enough.   
  
More.   
  
More.   
  
She needed more.   
  
She went into her mind, and begged for more. She begged   
for her home planet to give her strength and power. The   
smallest planet in the Galaxy maybe the little one, but not for   
nothing it received the energy of the Sun. It was a living   
battery. And when its Princess asked for power, it obeyed   
immediately.   
  
Her aura was beginning to expand. It began dancing around   
her in a complicated waltz of power--- yet she knew nothing   
of it. All she could think about was---  
  
{It still isn't enough. I'm too weak to do this}.   
  
What if she couldn't do it? What if all of this was a   
play, designed to make a fool out of her? She felt herself   
recoiling from the dancing blue spots behind her eyelids,   
unsure of what lay behind them. As a scientist, she disliked   
unwanted scenarios--- science was about control and   
explanations and answers... magic had never entered any of those   
fields.   
  
This was as far as she had ever gone: what lay beyond her   
own boundaries was something she had never tapped into   
before. Was she ready to do it? Was she ready to lay her   
concerns aside, and face what she was destined to be?  
  
She wasn't, and she knew it--- but then again, she didn't   
really have much of a choice. Either she did this now, or   
she never would. But she couldn't... for the life of her,   
she couldn't!  
  
{I'm weak}  
  
The thought sprang forth with such force her eyes flew   
open on their own accord. And a sudden realization dawned onto   
her. She wasn't weak. She was just afraid. She was   
terrified of the consequences of releasing her true power. She had   
always relayed on her mind, leaving her strength aside---   
she had handicapped herself as she chose the brains over the   
brawn.   
  
A true warrior was neither.   
  
A true warrior was both.   
  
She needed completion. Completion she had never achieved   
before. Completion which she had denied herself. And now,   
she needed it. A door within her blasted open as Ami   
destroyed the barricades she had unknowingly built around herself.   
Her eyes fell closed again and her head tilted backwards,   
and she let herself pour into the Crystal in her hands.   
  
Her aura now filled the room, dancing around her in   
complicated patterns that she couldn't even begin to understand.   
The air inside was cold, even freezing, but she felt none   
of it. She could faintly hear screams that were coming from   
outside: maybe it was the Senshi or the guards. She didn't   
really care right now.   
  
She had to stay focused. She knew she couldn't let her   
control slip. If she did, her power would go loose, and   
release itself in one huge explosion, which would probably   
destroy the Palace.   
  
Her body felt numb, her fingers going cold to the point of   
hypothermia. So big was the amount of energy she had inside   
her, her body was having a hard time dealing with it. And   
still, the Ginzuishou remained limp inside her cupped hands   
as if silently laughing at her pathetic attempts at   
matching the power Usagi wielded.   
  
Tears came into her eyes and she felt powerless.   
  
She had done everything she could think of. Doubt clouded   
her mind again.   
She *was* the weak Senshi then--- she wasn't strong enough   
to awaken the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou's hunger... the jewel   
would never even feel her call... she was too weak... she   
was never the fighter type, and she never had a chance of   
going through with this!   
  
Why had she ever thought on doing this? It was crazy.   
There was no way she could make the Crystal feed of her... she   
was just the first course. That's why   
Usagi was the chosen one to be eaten.   
  
{Usagi}   
  
She began crying, tears sliding down her cheeks. Why? Why   
couldn't she save her friend?  
  
She was too weak.   
  
Too weak.   
  
Too weak to even save her best friend.   
  
'You're as strong as you want to be'.   
  
Her eyes snapped open, hoping against hope. Zoisite. That   
was Zoisite's voice!  
  
Through a haze of thundering bolts of power going off   
around her, she was able to make out his beloved form, standing   
outside the now open doors. How on Earth had he gotten   
there, Ami did not know...   
  
'I love you'   
  
She mouthed the words at him, her throat too closed up to   
actually speak them. She saw him nodding slowly, the   
saddest of smiles gracing his lips.   
  
'I love you too'   
  
He knew. He *knew*. She could see it him his eyes, could   
see it in the way his fingers gripped the door frame and   
longed to be with her, within the maelstrom of power she had   
summoned... but he also understood why he could not.   
  
He had found her letter.   
  
He knew what she was going to do.  
  
And even if he didn't like it, he supported her... no   
matter what, Zoi stood by her.   
  
He loved her.   
  
And she loved him.   
  
And then, she knew what she had to do. For the first time   
in her life, she understood where real power came from. She   
knew why Usagi was so strong. Usagi got her power from her   
love to everyone. From her love to Mamoru. Love was the   
source of all power, and now only did she fully understand it.   
  
She had always gotten her power from her mind. She never   
used the love she had for her friends, for her family, for   
her husband. And now, thanks to Zoisite, she was able to   
understand.   
  
Her eyes searched his through the crowd that had gathered   
outside the door. As she found them, she smiled sadly, her   
lips twisting into a grimace as pain began filling her, the   
first signs of the Ginzuishou acknowledging her presence.   
  
"Thank you".   
  
She closed her eyes again, and reached into her heart. Her   
heart, the one which held the love for everyone: the same   
heart she had once feared would remain alone forever, a   
broken promise of the past keeping it in shards.   
  
Not anymore.  
  
Rei, Mako, Mina, Haruka   
MichiruSetsunaHotaruMamoruChibi-usaUsagi...  
  
Zoi...  
  
With that last thought, she threw her head back and poured   
her energy into the shimmering Crystal in her hands. She   
felt it in the edge of her senses, a presence they had only   
thought a dream before--- clearly female, it seemed to   
awaken from a long dormancy and she could almost see a pair of   
blue eyes looking down on her, blinking sleepily. The   
Ginzuishou was starting to feel her. It was starting to sense her   
power. And it liked it. As one sips a good wine, tasting,   
deciding whether to drink it all or not---  
  
And then, it happened. When her life force reached her   
halo, a loud explosion reverberated across the room and it was   
as if the sky itself had broken in half. The windows   
shattered and a crack formed on the otherwise pristine crystal   
floor, beginning right in between Ami's feet and running   
through the corridors and into the innards of the Palace as if   
searching for something.   
  
Ami felt as the Ginzuishou awakened completely.   
  
She could feel it pulsing stronger and stronger until it   
rose off her palms and hovered a few inches above her   
fingers. She felt as the Crystal pulsed in synch with her   
heartbeat, one, two, three times---   
  
{Now!}  
  
Whether in response to her silent command or simply   
because it had decided it was time, the Crystal shone with a   
light so bright Ami feared it would sing her pupils and a   
sizzling pain filled her body as the Feasting began.   
  
It was then that she opened her mouth and screamed.   
  
Her cry was heard all over the palace, the transparent   
crystal walls serving as loudspeakers, increasing the sound.   
On their bed, Usagi and Mamoru jolted awake, both feeling   
the disturbance.   
  
Mamoru felt as the Earth screamed alongside Ami,   
witnessing the horror of the life-drain she was being subjected to.   
Usagi felt as the Ginzuishou came to life on its own   
volition and how it refused to respond to her commands... for the   
first time ever. She tried to reach it through their link,   
and she was softly yet steadily pushed away.   
  
She tried again, and as if angered at her insistence,   
their connection shut down completely. One look into her   
husband's troubled eyes, and they were both on their way to the   
Sacred Chamber, a black shadow crawling upon their hearts.   
  
The tried to enter, to help her, but a hand stopped them   
all. It was Zoisite, who sadly shook his head.   
  
"Don't".   
  
"Zoisite, don't you see? She's dying in there!", Makoto   
all but snarled at him. He nodded sadly, his eyes never   
leaving Ami's floating form. "I know".   
  
"Then what are you waiting for? Let's get in there!".   
  
Again, Zoisite pushed her back.   
  
"No. Look".   
  
He grabbed a small flower vase that stood by his side, and   
without saying anything, threw it inside the room. As if   
Time itself had stopped, the vase flew to a halt. For a split   
second, nothing happened--- and then it was as if a white   
sea had been pelted into it. Alabaster spread through the   
surface like a tide before it exploded with a deafening   
crash.   
  
The pieces slid through the floor like marbles and one of   
them came to a stop right at Rei's feet. She picked it up   
and squeaked as her fingers came into contact with the ivory   
fragment. It fell from her hands and shattered upon   
landing, a million and one glittering shards lighting up the   
corridor... it was as if someone had spread star dust over it.   
  
"It's freezing".   
  
"She's expanded her power. That room is a freezer right   
now. She-- she saved you, Serenity".   
  
Usagi turned her troubled eyes to the General, trying to   
find in his face an explanation that wasn't there. "She   
saved me? From what?".   
  
"I can't explain it now. Later".   
  
No one questioned him. They trusted him enough to wait.   
  
Zoisite's eyes turned back to Ami (Mercury, a voice said   
in the back of his mind. She *is* transformed, after all),   
who still floated a few inches above the floor. Her body was   
glowing with a light that wasn't its own and in her hands,   
the Ginzuishou shone brighter than ever.   
  
He watched with a heavy heart as Ami's aura decreased and   
seemed to fold in upon itself with every passing second.   
How he wanted to get in there and cradle his wife in his   
arms, but he knew he would be frozen to death the second he   
steeped into the room.   
  
He had to wait and it was killing him.   
  
Self-preservation be damned, if he didn't carry such   
precious information within him that he was required to share   
with the rest of the Senshi, he would've jumped inside a long   
time ago.   
  
Ami's mouth was twisted in pain, and her chest was moving   
up and down in quick a series of movements as she tried to   
breathe, trying to make her suffering more bearable. Her   
whole body was shaking as her energy left her.   
  
As her *life* left her.   
  
Zoisite watched in utter helplessness.   
  
The aura which minutes ago had filled the room was now   
returning to normal. It now surrounded her body closer, as a   
mother does a child. There was a familiar feel to the hum of   
magic around them, and Zoisite realized they were all   
feeling Ami's life force being poured *out* of her. As little by   
little the nimbus around his wife diminished, the   
Ginzuishou glowed brighter and brighter as it fed. And then, with   
another explosion, everything was quiet.   
  
They were all surprised to see how suddenly it had ended.   
There was no sound but their breathing. It was strange,   
almost anticlimactic---   
  
Inside, Ami was laying on the floor, clearly unconscious.   
And the Ginzuishou floated above her, glowing faintly,   
seemingly dormant. Not a heartbeat had gone by and Zoisite was   
already by Ami's side, kneeling by his wife, calling her   
name.  
  
The expression in his face was one the Senshi had never   
seen. And it hurt to look at him--- it was the type of   
despair that beckons you in and then swallows you whole, and this   
all just by looking at it. They could only imagine what he   
was going through.   
  
As his hand reached out to feel the pulse on her neck, no   
one noticed the faint outline of a beautiful, green haired   
woman standing behind them, her otherwise cold eyes full of   
tears.   
  
"She's alive". There was a general sigh of relief but the   
anonymous woman shook her head sadly before disappearing   
into nothingness. There were still so many things they didn't   
understand...   
  
As if in cue with her disappearance, Ami's fuku rippled   
and changed, dissolving into her every day street clothing.   
The Senshi paled, and as Usagi's hand flew to cover her   
mouth, it did not stop the terrified whisper that left her   
lips:  
  
"Her power--it's gone".   
  
Zoisite nodded, clutching Ami's limp body to his chest. He   
dared not to look at the Senshi as he spoke, but the   
quivering of his voice let them know everything his stance did   
not.   
  
"She--she gave her power to the Ginzuishou".   
  
At the mention of the crystal, Usagi turned to look at   
her, stretching her hand and commanding it to return to its   
sleeping place. When it did not answer, she frowned, and as   
her fingers clasped around the flower shaped gem, a faint   
moan echoed around them and Ami shivered.   
  
"Don't touch it. It hurts her when you do it".   
  
Zoisite looked at her pleadingly, and as he did so, Usagi   
noticed for the first time the faint string that connected   
the Crystal to Ami. It began right in the center of the   
Ginzuishou, and flowed across time and space into Ami's heart.   
  
As she released it, Ami seemed to relax in Zoisite's arms   
and the Crystal hovered towards her, floating atop her   
heart with ease.   
  
"Angel. Why did you do it? You know *I* would've done it.   
But you didn't give me a chance...".   
  
His voice was barely a whisper, and the Senshi could not   
bear the suffering it conveyed. They looked away, feeling so   
awkwardly out of place... For a few more seconds, Zoisite   
kept on soothing the unconscious woman in his arms. He then   
picked her up, and motioned for the others to follow.   
  
"Let's take her to bed. She surely needs to rest".   
  
Everyone nodded, and didn't ask a thing, knowing that the   
moment wasn't right. Zoisite led the way, knowing the   
palace by heart. He was hugging Ami tight, as if trying to   
protect her from that invisible link that was slowly drawing her   
life away.   
  
It did nothing to help. No matter how fast he moved, the   
Ginzuishou was always a step ahead of him, always hovering   
atop of Ami's prone form, almost mocking in its silence.   
  
As they approached the South Wing of the palace, the   
sinking feeling of dread began taking hold of all of them. Ami   
was never sick. Ami never fell ill. Ami was a doctor.   
Something didn't add up right in there.   
  
Soon, magnificent doors opened and led them to a beautiful   
room. The sun shone through the open window and the   
curtains flowed sensuously in a dance only they understood. Yet,   
there was something infinitely sad about the chamber---   
hopeless, they felt hopeless.   
  
Minako shivered unconsciously, as she realized what it   
reminded her of.  
  
A hospital room.   
  
Trying so hard to appear cheery, happy and hopeful---even   
when the patient lying there would never leave it alive. A   
facade, a lie, prepared to keep up the moral of grieving   
relatives. She had never expected to find herself in this   
place. Otherwise, the room would've been a wonder, a pleasure   
to stay in--- right now, she couldn't stop the cold sweat   
which ran down her back.   
  
As Zoisite laid Ami on the bed carefully, she moaned in   
pain, and the sound echoed loudly in the empty room. And it   
brought tears to their eyes, as they realized she might not   
make it.  
  
"She--- she sacrificed her life for us".   
  
When they tried to ask him what was going on, what was all   
this about, Zoisite's hand placated them.   
  
"Let me finish. She came to me heartbroken and desperate   
last night and I knew something was wrong. I didn't push her   
and I curse myself for that now. When I woke today, I found   
a letter she had left me... where she explained   
everything".   
  
Zoisite sat in the bed, holding Ami's hand and caressing   
the space between her index and thumb at a slow pace, just   
the way she liked. He just hoped that wherever she was, she   
could feel him...   
  
"She had found a prophecy. A prophecy which foretold the   
death of life. Not destruction, but total annihilation. And   
she couldn't let it end like that. So, she made her choice.   
And that's why she's here now".   
  
There were so many questions that they needed to ask, so   
many things that didn't make sense... but before any of the   
Senshi could ask anything, Usagi had moved forward and was   
kneeling by the bed, her gossamer Queen wings accommodating   
in such a way that they did not brush the floor.  
  
"Please, Gods, no....".  
  
She closed her eyes, and the crescent moon in her forehead   
shone for a brief second as she called for her heritage:   
the Ginzuishou glowed once, twice, three times and then   
settled back into dormancy, hovering above Ami's heart.   
  
A general shriek exploded in the room as the others   
understood what Usagi had feared.   
  
"I--I can't control the Crystal".  
  
As she slowly turned around, facing her longtime friends,   
she saw mirrored in their eyes the same horror that lay in   
hers.   
  
Fear. Fear for the unknown.   
  
The Silver Crystal had always been hers to control. Hers   
to command. Now, that was no more.   
  
"It's OK, Serenity. It will return to you when it's done".   
  
"Done? You make it sound as if it's eating or   
something---".  
  
Minako had never been the brightest of the Senshi. Yet, as   
years went by, she had learnt a lot. She had developed a   
certain ability to *feel*, instead of the one Ami had, to   
know. And somehow, she had just opened the biggest can of   
worms to ever land on the Senshis' lap.   
  
"*Eating* is a very good way of explaining it, Minako".  
  
  
***************  
  
  
TBC...  
  
I don't think I need to explain who that mysterious woman   
was, right?  
  
Tell me what you thought of it, and we've only got one more chapter to go. 


	4. Chapter 4

** The Enemy Within **, Chapter 4  
  
by Lilian.  
  
lilian413@yahoo.com  
Disclaimer: Not mine. SM and all related characters belong to Naoko Takeuchi and companies  
big enough to own *me*.   
***********************  
Many people deal with fear the simplest way they know:   
denial.   
  
That was why as I explained to the Senshi what the   
Ginzuishou was doing, they were reluctant to believe. That, and   
the fact that well, said Ginzuishou had saved their lives   
countless of times before...  
  
"No!! You're wrong! The Crystal is a weapon of good, it   
would never hurt a living creature!".  
  
I was tempted to smile, but I just didn't have the energy:   
watching my beloved slip away from within my embrace was   
too much for me and I only managed to grimace at Rei's   
perfect choice of words.   
  
"You've said it yourself, Rei-san. The Crystal is a   
weapon. And as any weapon, it sometimes needs to be recharged".   
  
Silence. Come to think of it, we should've expected this.   
Nothing gives as gives as much as the Crystal has given us,   
and doesn't ask something in return sooner or later. Okay,   
so Serenity might be the exception to that rule, but...   
  
"You mean-- my mother-- she--- she knew?".   
  
Serenity is far more brilliant than people give her credit   
for. I nod, slowly. Ami's letter was short and precise---   
but she knew I could make up for all the things she did not   
write. It's easy to fill in the gaps once you've seen the   
bigger picture.   
  
"Just think. If Queen Serenity could harness a power so   
big to lock the Dark Kingdom away for a thousand years, why couldn't   
she just revive you?".  
  
I sometimes wonder if the burden of intelligence is a   
curse or a blessing. They say ignorance is bliss.   
  
I have yet to try the feeling.   
  
My mind never lets me remain ignorant for long, and being   
married to the smartest woman on the planet wasn't a big   
help, either...  
  
"Because she had used all the Crystal's power", I   
continue, avoiding their horrified gazes and unbelieving eyes.   
Maybe this things were *meant* to be known. It just took too   
much of a sacrifice for things to get rolling. Sometimes,   
humanity needs a shove into the right direction...  
  
"Everything the legends say is wrong. The Crystal does not   
focus the energy of the beholder to work its magic--- it   
feeds from them. And when the feeding is too big, it simply   
sucks life out of them. That's what happened to Queen   
Serenity. She used it for too long, protecting the people first,   
battling Metallia next, and sending you all to the future   
last".   
  
Even as I speak, a thousand and one little details return   
to me and some new ones pop up.   
  
"So, all these years--- all along--"  
  
"Yes. For a thousand years, you, Serenity have been using   
the life force of your mother as your weapon. Why do you   
think she could appear to you in situations of distress?   
Because a part of her was locked inside the Crystal".   
  
My voice dies down at the end of the sentence, realizing   
that even if I have learnt to emotionally detach myself from   
the information, the girls do not have that luxury.   
  
"Oh. My. God".   
  
I don't know who spoke, the whisper so low and throaty   
there's no way of identifying the voice. And I don't really   
care, because it pretty much summarizes what we're all   
feeling.   
  
"You're saying--- do you realize what you are saying? For   
the next millennia, we're gonna be defending ourselves with   
Ami's energy?".  
  
My Prince put two and two together rather quickly, and as   
his words echo around us with the finality of truth, we all   
turn as one to stare at the glowing Ginzuishou hovering   
atop of my wife's delicate form.   
  
For the first time in my life, I think I feel something   
evil in the way it shines, almost as if enjoying the taste of   
Ami's life.   
  
"We know what the solution is, then". I don't have to look   
to know that Serenity is wearing her resolve face. And you   
don't want to mess with her when she's like that. It's   
clear to me what she wishes to do. And it's something I've   
wanted to do since I learned about this huge mess.   
  
"Honey, you don't--- you can't--", tries Endimion, placing   
a gloved hand on her shoulder.   
  
"Let me tell you what I CAN'T do. I can't watch my friend   
DIE, that's what  
I CAN'T do!!".  
  
Told you.   
  
And I understand--- but I'm torn: one side of me, the one   
who lived back in the Silver Millennium, the one who   
experienced death and disaster refuses to demand such a   
preposterous thing. Because the Silver Crystal is the ultimate   
power, and we can't afford to loose it.   
  
"Usagi, you can't destroy the Crystal!".   
  
"I will if that's what it takes to save Ami".   
  
The other side of me, the husband, the lover, the *friend*   
wishes to grab the Ginzuishou and slam it against the wall,   
to watch it shatter into a million pieces if that's what   
it'll take for it to give me my wife back.   
  
"But, Usagi, you have to think about the consequences---".  
  
"Consequences? Let me tell you about consequences. My best   
friend is lying there, *dying*, for God's sake. And you're   
sitting here, telling me that you're gonna let her go, just   
like that?".   
  
"Yes".   
  
That wasn't any of the girls---  
  
"AMI!!!".   
  
As they all rush towards the bed, I turn around, and the   
world slows down.   
  
In a hidden corner of my mind, I hope.   
  
I pray.   
  
{Let her be all right}   
  
I should've known better. Life is not fair. There is no   
such thing as miracles, not when Fate is hell bent on having   
its way. My beautiful Ami... she's still as pale as the   
dead, her pretty face colored with pain.   
  
Pain I can't help her bear. And my heart is stricken with   
pain of my own, as it hurts me to watch her fade away in   
that bed, slipping right through my fingers like ethereal   
dreams of a future that now will never be.   
  
Her forehead is covered with a thin layer of sweat and her   
breathing is ragged, as if she had been running for the   
past hours. In a way, she has. She has ran from Destiny, my   
dearest Ami, as she looked and looked until her eyes bled and   
found no way out of the Feasting. If only it had been me...   
damn it, why wasn't it me?  
  
Her eyes hold my own for just a second, sending me her   
unconditional love. The next, they're firmly set on   
Serenity's.   
  
I swear I almost saw my Queen cringe.   
  
"You will *not* do such a foolish thing, do you hear me?".   
  
As Serenity can only stare at her with wide eyes, and a   
dumb look on her face, Ami struggles to sit on the bed. It   
only takes one tiny whimper for me to be supporting her   
weight on my arms. She raises her head at me, defiantly   
demanding an explanation. Ami was never one to accept pity. But   
pity is not what I'm offering you, my everything.   
  
It's love.   
  
She understands. Her eyes immediately soften, and for a   
second, it's just the two of us, together, alone---  
  
A soft moan leaves her lips and her face wrinkles in pain.   
That's more than enough to shake us off our dream. I help   
her sit up, and make her rest on my chest.   
  
Gods, she's warm. Feverish. Her energy, her strength is   
flowing through her in waves--- through her and straight into   
the Crystal.   
  
"I will not allow you to destroy the Ginzuishou".   
  
The Senshi seemed to have reconsidered. Just a few minutes   
ago, they strongly fought Serenity's idea. Now, the only   
thing that seems to be holding them back is Ami herself.   
Maybe they find strength in numbers, but I know this is not a   
battle they can win. Ami did not say much in her letter, but   
I know these Apocalypse-averting things are more often than   
not irreversible and *always* deadly.   
  
"Ami-chan, you know it's the only way---", tries Minako,   
her blue eyes frantic as they fly from the hovering crystal   
to my wife and back.   
  
"No, Mina. No".   
  
Ami's tone is firm though still laced with pain. I hold   
her hand in my own, and squeeze it reassuringly. She squeezes   
back, but does not look at me. Maybe she does not trust   
herself to do so-- I know that if I looked into her azure eyes   
and found but a smidgen of fear I'd do something irrational   
to try and alleviate her suffering and probably end up   
tipping the scales the exact opposite side we want them to tip   
towards.   
  
"The Crystal *must* go on".   
  
"But, Ami, you-- you can't do this! You're dying!".   
  
Makoto towers above the bed but she looks so very childish   
as she lets tears run down her rosy cheeks. As she   
struggles to convince Ami of something I know will never happen, I   
pity the poor soul that decided this particular turn of   
events was fun: should Makoto ever lay her hands on him or   
her, slaughter and mayhem would follow.   
  
"So? I always knew my death wouldn't be on the   
battlefield. This is just as a good way of leaving as any other".   
  
"Ami, we can make it! Our powers are strong, and the Neo   
Senshi are to be called soon--- together we can defeat   
whatever is coming!".  
  
Ami's eyes move slowly, tiredly as her strength leaves her   
heartbeat by heartbeat. I can tell even breathing hurts her   
now, and I try not to hold her too tight. Difficult task,   
considering I wish for nothing more but to hide her from the   
outside world and rip the link that keeps the Ginzuishou   
connected to her apart. But I remain still.  
  
Magical forces are not to be tampered with, and should I   
succeed in breaking the connection Ami and the crystal share   
now (which I highly doubt: my logical mind understands the   
implications of the Feasting more than I'd like to), I'd   
probably also unleash the Silver Crystal's magic too. And   
without an owner to control it, we'd go poof before we were   
able to say 'cheers'.   
  
"You think I didn't think about that? You think I didn't   
check *every* possibility before doing this? There is *no*   
other way. The Crystal must be preserved, and for that, I   
must die".   
  
"How can you be so sure?. I mean, only Pluto can tell   
what's to come, and maybe, we won't have to fight ever again,   
and the Crystal won't be needed ever again, and---"  
  
Minako's babbling. She's scared to death.   
  
Welcome to the club.   
  
"Mina-chan. Let it go. I *know*. I'm *sure*. Look".   
  
A thin hand raises from within the sheets {God, was she   
ever this pale?} and points towards the floating Silver   
Crystal. For a second, nothing happens. Then, it glows, faintly.   
And suddenly, something begins to appear. A thin, pale,   
glowing string. A string of energy. Starting from the center   
of the Crystal itself, and ending right in Ami's heart.   
  
It stays visible for some seconds, before slowly fading   
away. But the gut-wrenching image is already imprinted with   
fire in my eyes. That's--- that's--- Gods that's what's   
killing her!!  
  
"As time goes by, my connection to the Crystal grows   
stronger. As my energy sweeps into it, I'm slowly acquiring some   
ability to harness its power. And for a split second, I was   
given the gift of Sight. I saw. I *saw*".  
  
Her voice chokes in a sob. I can't tell whether it's the   
pain, or the future she saw...  
I'm putting my bets on the second one, though. Ami is not   
one to be easily overcome with pain. I've seen her sport   
injuries that would render a man twice her size unconscious   
like there were nothing like scratches,   
  
After some moments of pregnant silence, she goes on.   
  
"For what's coming, we will need the Crystal. Not us and   
neither our children--- but their children's children. A   
Great War is coming, and if the Crystal is not there to help,   
it is a battle we won't win".   
  
Friendship is the most beautiful thing in the world. It's   
also the most terrible. Because it won't let you see beyond   
it. It makes you stubborn.   
  
"Who cares! We'll deal with it when the time comes!".   
  
"NO!".  
  
Ami has been angry very few times in her life. With did   
today have to be one of them?  
  
"I've told you. The Crystal *must* stay!".   
  
And suddenly, it's as if all her energy has left her.   
Tiredly, she slumps back, deeper into my embrace--- and I gasp.   
God, was it just minutes ago that she was feverish? She's   
freezing now. No, no, not now--- there's so much to say---   
so much to do--- please, Ami---  
  
"Besides, it's already too late. I'm still conscious only   
because the Crystal wishes me to. The energy drain has gone   
too far--- if you destroy it, I'll die anyway".   
  
One of the things we learnt by experimenting with the   
Crystal was that strangely, whenever it's being used, it   
connects with the host. In a basic, almost animal way, it feels.   
It knows what's going on around it.   
  
Probably decided to give Ami a little more time--- which   
is now running short.   
  
I raise my eyes and look at the group gathered in the   
room. And I see something I had never seen before.  
  
Defeat. Hope vanished. Faith is gone.  
  
All that's left, is the all-consuming feeling--- the   
certainty of defeat. They have finally understood. There's no   
hope left. No last-minute miracle. No magic can save Ami,   
because it's magic itself that's taking her away from us.   
  
For seconds, they all remain quiet. Then Serenity dares to   
speak.   
  
"But how, how do you expect me to even *touch* it again,   
after this--- this insanity?"  
  
Serenity's voice is pleading. She pleads for an answer   
that will never come. Because there's no answer to be given.   
And as far as the higher powers are concerned, there's no   
question to be asked in the first place.   
  
"I will remember this every time I even come near it!", she   
continues, and she leans into my Prince's chest and hides   
her tears from us.   
  
"You won't", answers Ami, and suddenly she's so very pale   
in my arms and so very cold I automatically check her   
pulse. And it's not there. At a silent command from Ami, the   
Crystal glows brightly. So bright, that my eyes hurt. And I   
can't see. Yet I cling to her, hugging her tightly, refusing   
to let her go. And so, I can feel as her body goes limp.   
  
With a sigh, something tangible leaves Ami's body and   
flows into the Crystal through the invisible link.   
  
I'm too shocked to move. My body is paralyzed and all I   
can do is keep on holding Ami's body, as if in doing so I'd   
be keeping her with me. But I can no longer hear her   
heartbeat; I can no longer feel her breath tickling my arms.   
  
Somewhere, far away, I hear someone shriek, but it barely   
registers.   
  
{Ami}  
  
Her name becomes a mantra and I repeat it an endless   
number of times in my head until it looses its meaning and   
becomes but a desperate move in hopes of retaining my sanity. I   
suddenly realize I'm crying, and as the tears slide down   
from my closed eyes, they hurt. They sting like insect bites,   
because they are tears of heartbreak.   
  
I force my eyes to open, and see--- an angel.   
  
A beautiful angel.   
  
With a sad smile, she flies towards me. For a second I   
can't recognize her face, framed with light so bright I wonder   
how come my pupils have not been seared away. A second   
later, I do. I could never forget those eyes; those bottomless,   
starry-night eyes that drew me in and made me fall in love   
with her at a fountain all those lifetimes ago.   
  
Ami.   
  
My Ami.   
  
Though as heavy as stone, my arm reaches out to her, my   
heart pleading...   
  
{Please, don't leave me}   
  
Her shinning white wings flutter around me and stray   
feathers blow past me, driven by some unseen wind. And I'm   
surrounded by glory.  
  
By hope.   
  
By her.   
  
Her slender, ethereal hands cup my face within them. And I   
can feel her warmth and a pulse, but I know they're just   
illusions conjured up by my weary brain as it ineffectively   
tries to make sense of what's happening.   
  
'sshhh, my love. Don't say anything. I know'  
  
My hands cup her face too, and slowly, painfully slowly,   
draw our faces together.   
  
And we kiss.   
  
And I'm filled with light, with power, with love--- and   
her lips under mine taste like strawberries and that cannot   
be a phantom memory of my brain because I bought her that   
lipstick just yesterday and she had yet to try it on and then   
that means she's really there but then what is the weight   
of her body I feel against me still doing there...  
  
'Don't forget me', is what I hear, her harmonious voice   
tingling with emotion and I watch her fly away from me, her   
hands still outstretched trying to touch me.   
  
And then, there's only darkness.   
* * * * * * * * * * * * *  
"You think it was the right thing to do?", asked the voice   
as they watched through the Doors of Time while the group they   
were both not allowed to mingle with woke up from their   
dormancy.  
  
"There was no right or wrong in this case. It was either   
leaving them with the bitter memories of the Ginzuishou or   
help them alleviate the pain as much as we could. Either   
way, the Crystal carried on, recharged".   
  
The first voice shuddered at that particular choice of   
words. The second voice seemed apologetic when it spoke again:   
"Sorry. Still too fresh for you, isn't it? In here, Time   
has no meaning and I guess it lost its meaning to me too".   
  
Soft laughter echoed around them and the first voice   
twinkled with mirth when it answered: "The day that happens,   
Setsuna, is when the World will stop turning. And cows will   
fly".   
  
Setsuna was tempted to whack her companion over the head   
with her Staff, but settled for sticking her tongue out at   
her. "Bummer. You're too literal sometimes, you know that?".   
  
A small span of silence followed in which the first person   
to speak eyed with teary eyes a certain blonde haired   
General as he sat up and rubbed the back of his head. Her brow   
furrowed when he looked around for something on the bed he   
lay.   
  
There was nothing there.  
  
"I thought you said they wouldn't remember", it said,   
accusingly.   
  
Setsuna shrugged, helpless: "They have this irking ability   
to defy the very laws of Time and Space, so I wouldn't be   
surprised if a figment of a memory makes its way into their   
conscious".   
  
When the anonymous voice spoke again, it was once again   
laced with amusement: "Boy, for a Time Guardian you sure   
don't know a lot, Setsuna".   
  
This time, the taller woman did not spare the smaller one   
the whack of her staff. The young woman simple fluttered   
her wings twice and hovered out of the way of the key-shaped   
weapon.   
  
"Mind the wings, honey. It's expensive to keep them this   
fluffy, you know?".   
  
A sound that had not been heard for a span of centuries   
echoed: the sound of one very serious Time Guardian laughing.   
Soon, the other voice joined her, and the gales of laughter   
brought new life to the lifeless corridors of Time.   
  
"I'm glad you came, Ami. I wasn't sure the Crystal would   
let you", Setsuna said when they had calmed down. The mood   
changed unexplainably quick and Ami's soft features were   
shadowed for a split second as she relived the last moment of   
her mortal existence.  
  
"So was I. Maybe it's more aware than we give it credit   
for", she supplied, giving explanations when they really   
weren't needed. After all, dead or alive, Mizuno Ami would   
always be Mizuno Ami, startling genius extraordinaire.  
  
When Setsuna's magenta eyes found Ami's azure ones, the   
younger woman was surprised to see true, unveiled sadness   
there. "I'm very sorry, Ami. I just--- there was no other   
way". There were many things Setsuna was apologizing for:   
forcing Fate upon Ami's shoulders pretty much summarized them   
all. But they both knew a lot about Time Continuum and   
Primordial Moments in Time, and Ami raised a hand to halt   
Setsuna's words.   
  
"Don't. I-- I know. It showed me and I knew. Besides,   
maybe it was best this way", she finished, casting a sad glance   
to the closing Doors of Time. In them, displayed with   
heartbreaking accuracy, a close-up of Zoisite's face, worried   
features and curious eyes wandering across the room as if   
searching for something.   
  
In his palm Ami noticed for the first time a single ivory   
feather. Her soft gasp was loud amongst the silence of the   
Corridors of Time but Setsuna did not turn to look; Ami   
could've sworn she saw the stone-faced Senshi smile almost   
imperceptibly.  
  
The last thing Ami saw before the Doors closed with a   
resounding 'slam', were Zoisite's green eyes widening in   
recognition as he clasped the delicate feather in his palm.   
Before she could ask Setsuna what it meant, the older woman was   
turning on her heel and motioning for her to follow.   
  
"Now, Ami, about that chess game you promised...".   
  
The flutter of the blue haired woman's wings swallowed the   
rest of her words and as they disappeared within the mists   
of Time, Zoisite shed a single tear for the wife he did not   
remember.   
  
And the Ginzuishou shone on, empowered with the life force   
of the Senshi who had selflessly died so that her friends   
could live.   
  
For that, my friends, is what true frienship means.   
***************  
The End.   
AN: I know. I can hardly believe it myself. I killed my fav character! Oh well, I read somewhere that  
you can only become a true author when you've killed a few characters, so here we go.   
Hope you enjoyed this little journey of mine, and I thank all of those who reviewed: your words   
mean the world to me, and keep me writing.   
Thanks! 


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